Various cargo-carrying vehicles, such as pickup trucks and certain trailers have open-topped cargo-carrying compartments. For many hauling requirements, the cargo-carrying compartment is much larger than the load being carried. In this event, forces imposed on the load due to various factors, such as vehicle acceleration and wind, can cause the load to move within the cargo-carrying compartment, and these movements can be sufficiently violent to damage the load or the interior of the cargo-carrying compartment.
To retain the load in position, it has been proposed to partition the cargo-carrying compartment, and one such device, which is applicable to a roll-top pickup box is shown in Miller U.S. Pat. No. 2,697,631. In the patented construction, two channels are mounted on the side walls of the pickup truck box, and these channels can support a divider which partitions the truck box.
The patented construction is usable only with roll-top pickup truck boxes which were in use many years ago. Although the location of the partition in the patented device can be changed, it requires the sliding of curved members along the roll top of the pickup truck box, and this would seem to inherently provide paint damage. Also, the channels are fixed in position by insertion of the divider or by bolting them to the side of the truck box, and neither of these techniques is desirable.